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Child health expert calls for review of testing practice for parental substance misuse
Child health expert calls for review of testing practice for parental substance misuse
Dr Payne’s call came following her attendance as a panel member at ‘The Way Forward for Child Protection’, a seminar organised by the Westminster Education Forum and sponsored by Concateno, Europe’s most experienced drug and alcohol testing provider.
Oxfordshire,
Abingdon,
United Kingdom
(pr4links.com)
10/08/2010
"The Way Forward for Child Protection"
A medical expert in child health, with a specialist clinical and research interest in child protection, has called for an impartial review of the current use of testing to detect parental substance misuse.
Consultant Paediatrician Dr Heather Payne, who is also a Member of the Family and Justice Council, said: “A review of current use of testing, its benefits and limitations, and guidelines for where it could be used would be helpful, from an impartial group including forensic physicians and others involved in child protection.”
Dr Payne’s call came following her attendance as a panel member at ‘The Way Forward for Child Protection’, a seminar organised by the Westminster Education Forum and sponsored by Concateno, Europe’s most experienced drug and alcohol testing provider. The event, which took place in London on July 6, 2010, looked at the effectiveness of the current system of child protection and discussed the options for the future direction of policy.
“Following the Baby Peter case, Concateno TrichoTech encountered a 40 percent increase in demand for parental substance misuse testing. But the requests were very inconsistent across the country – just 39 tests were ordered in Scotland in 2009 for example, in comparison to 13,000 in England and Wales in the same period,” commented Kevina Murray from Concateno’s specialist child protection division.
She added: “We believe that parental substance misuse can be a significant issue in child protection case work, and that more can be done to standardise support services such as drug and alcohol testing across the UK to help tackle the problem and ensure the safety and well being of all children.”
Concateno TrichoTech, supported ‘The Way Forward for Child Protection’ event as part of its ongoing commitment to help child protection professionals understand how drug testing services and the detection of parental substance misuse can help in family law and child protection casework. Concateno’s testing services enable informed decisions to be made regarding the protection, health and wellbeing of children affected by parental drug and alcohol use.
Alongside Dr Payne, speakers at the event included names such as Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children's Commissioner for England and Chief Executive, Office of the Children's Commissioner, and Lord Laming, who has long been associated with social services, and in particular child protection, issues in Britain. Joining them was Sharon Shoesmith, former Director of Children’s Services, Haringey Council, making her first public speaking appearance in more than 18 months since she lost her legal case over her sacking following the Baby Peter case.
Ends
For more information regarding Concateno, please contact:
Carrie Lowe or Matt Trace
Telephone: +44 (0)1962 893 893
Mobile: +44 (0)7554 014 188 / (0)7828 663 988
Email: carrie.lowe@concateno.com / matthew.trace@concateno.com
Concateno – global drug testing services
Informed testing for informed decisions, when it matters most
Concateno (www.concateno.com) brings together Europe’s strongest and most experienced drug and alcohol testing organisations and over 60 years of collected expertise. It offers an unparalleled breadth of advisory services and testing capabilities – spanning laboratory, point of care tests and all sample types for any biological specimen, including urine, oral fluids, hair and sweat.
Concateno’s 400 employees perform and deliver more than 10 million tests annually, supported by a global network of 600 sample collection officers, trained in-house in chain-of-custody procedures. Together, they conduct testing for approximately 8,500 clients in 130 countries around the world across all industries, healthcare and government bodies.
Concateno’s dedicated divisions specialise in: Child Protection, Clinical Diagnostics, Criminal Justice, Employee Services, Healthcare and Maritime.
Quality is assured by the highest levels of accreditation, supported by expert and responsive customer service. Concateno’s three UK laboratories are audited and accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 for the testing for substance misuse in hair, oral fluids and urine, respectively. Laboratory products and point of care test products are manufactured within ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 certified facilities. The company is also subject to a range of external quality assurance programmes, including UKNEQAS, IIP and CAP (US scheme).
In August 2009, Concateno became a subsidiary of Alere Inc., formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: ALR).
About Alere
By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Alere (www.alere.com), formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Alere’s global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. Alere is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.
About
Concateno is Europe's leading drug and alcohol testing service provider and a manufacturer of clinical diagnostic instruments and drug testing kits. Working in Child Protection, Clinical Diagnostics, Criminal Justice, the workplace, Healthcare and the Maritime industry.
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